ANAHEIM, Calif. – It’s an embarrassment of riches for the Anaheim Ducks and their young core, and while the veterans got them ahead early, it was the kids that closed on Wednesday.
Goals by Jansen Harkins, Radko Gudas and Ryan Strome gave the Ducks a two-goal lead, and despite the Boston Bruins tying the game in the third, Lukáš Dostál made crucial saves to pave the way for Ian Moore game-winning goal and back-to-back victories at Honda Center, 4-3.
Anaheim swept the season series with Boston with two game-winning strikes to break ties in the final five minutes.
“Hard fought game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We were fortunate at the end of the night (in Boston) saying, oh my God, we scored the big goals late, and tonight kind of got the same comparable result, where they had a territorial edge on us, and they had quality, and goaltending, our goalie was great. And we battled… We played our best hockey when they tied it up.”
Dostál made a season-high 36 saves, none bigger than a sprawling save in a tie game with eight minutes to go on Boston’s Morgan Geekie, who had two power play goals.
Just a few minutes later, Ian Moore started a rush with a deft pass to Chris Kreider out of Anaheim’s zone, and on the other end of the ice, the 24-year-old Harvard grad rookie blasted a shot through Kreider’s screen for the go-ahead goal.
“I kind of had my head down and tried to get something on net,” Moore said, “especially when Kreids is in front. When you’re in the slot there, you just want to get something down there and give them something to work with. Good screen by him. He’s a big body couldn’t really see through him.”
Anaheim (13-6-1, 27 points) remained on top of the Pacific Division and pushed its home record out to 7-1-0 on the season. After snapping a seven-game win streak by losing three-of-three on a road trip, the Ducks have pulled out back-to-back one-goal wins at home.
“I thought we grinded tonight,” Strome said. “Not the prettiest game, but coach always says that finding ways to win is a skill, and I think we’re finding that. We did just enough tonight, and I thought we competed real hard. Execution wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take the two points.”
The Ducks are right back at it tomorrow night in the second half of a rare home back-to-back against the Ottawa Senators.
In Anaheim’s first match-up with the Bruins in Boston last month, it was a last-shot wins situation with neither Boston’s Joonas Korpisalo or the Ducks’ Petr Mrazek coming up with a game-changing stop in a back-and-forth, 7-5 Anaheim win.
On Wednesday in Anaheim, the Ducks’ goaltending was the deciding X Factor, and it was Lukáš Dostál throwing up another wall.
As Boston dominated the shot chart over the first two periods, it was Dostál that held back the surge with 28 stops in the first 40 minutes alone, including denial of a two-on-none Bruins rush to preserve a one-goal lead late in the first period.
Despite the Bruins tying up the game in the third period, Dostál bought Anaheim more time, with a sprawling save to his right just getting a piece of his arm on a potential go-ahead hat trick goal by Morgan Geekie.
“That save he made on Geekie with like 8 minutes left, which is unbelievable,” Strome said. “One of the better saves I’ve seen this year. He got all of that, and he made a great save.”
“He’s been huge. Obviously, we can rely on him. We don’t want to rely on him as much as we had to tonight, but I mean, he just looks so calm in there. Everything hits him in the chest, it seems like.”
Dostál may have even been able to keep the Ducks ahead in the third period, but a friendly fire snow shower by a hard-charging Olen Zellweger seemingly disrupted Dostál’s vision on Boston’s game-tying goal.
However, Lukáš Dostál is as quiet and steady as they come, which allowed him to focus in on the key stops late.
The 22-year-old made good on that and gave a lot more in a bounce-back performance on Wednesday.
McTavish picked up his first point in five games with an assist on Radko Gudas’ first-period blast, and the No. 2 center put up his first multi-point performance since the second game of the season with a brilliant assist on a magnificent power play deflection by Ryan Strome in the second period.
“He looked pretty assertive, strong out there, and he’s a huge part of this team,” Strome said. “I know that he’s a team first guy. So I know, you know, last couple of days, he’s been stung a little bit, but the best part about him is he came today with a great attitude, played a great game. So he’s a good leader, great player, and nice to find me there.”
“Hopefully passes to me more now,” Strome said with a smile, “so we’ll see.”
McTavish had just one point in his previous six games and only three points in his last nine games, including a gifted empty-netter two weeks ago in Dallas.
“I thought Mac T (had) his best game in a while,” Quenneville said. “Did have to puck more tonight. That line had some, I know, cutter had speed as a game progressed, and Becks does a lot of good things, and there’s some things that we know that we can improve upon. But (McTavish) was dangerous a lot of the night, and that line was effective having the puck way more.”
The Ottawa native nearly put in his first goal against a goaltender since Oct. 31 when he stuffed in a puck around the fallen Bruins netminder in the second period. However, the goal was called back on goaltender interference, as the referee concluded that incidental contact with Joonas Korpisalo and McTavish sent Korpisalo to the ice and did not allow the goalie enough time to reset before McTavish’s goal attempt.
It’s been a big week for Czechia at Honda Center, including four of its first six preliminary Olympic roster selections in action on Wednesday–Radko Gudas and Lukáš Dostál for the Ducks, and David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha for the Bruins. Matej Blumel also suited up for Boston.
On Monday, Gudas returned from a lower-body injury, and on Tuesday, the Ducks scored his first goal of the season on a point blast.
Lukáš Dostál started both games for Anaheim and earned a pair of wins. Petr Mrazek backed up Dostál in both games.
On Boston’s first goal, Zacha picked up an assist on the tipped tally of Morgan Geekie (not Czech), as Blumel also hovered around the crease. Pastrnak earned an assist on the second tipped power play goal by Geekie (still not Czech).
On Monday, Utah also featured an all-Czech goal crease with starter Karel Vejmelka and back-up Vitek Vanacek. On Saturday, Tomas Hertl and the Vegas Golden Knights will roll into Anaheim.
A sizable Czech media contingent has been in Orange County all week to document each Ducks morning skate, game and lone optional practice on Tuesday.